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Home , Cendrillon, Cendrillon (Isouard), Delores Ziegler, Fabiana Bravo, Pauline Viardot

Bel Cantanti Company Season 2017-2018

Cendrillon () an opera with the music by P. Viardot and F. Chopin.

Saturday, January 6, at 3:00pm Riderwood Village Chapel

Marie, called (Cinderella)…………………………………………………………………………………………..Melissa Chavez Le Baron de Pictordu, her father……………………………………………..……………….…………………………………Eric Gramatges Armelinde, another daughter of Pictordu…………………………………………..….……………………………………. Amanda Staub Maguelonne, another daughter of Pictordu………………………………………..……….……………………………………Evelyn Tsen La Fée ()……………………………………………………………………..………………………………………….Joanna Jones Le Prince Charmant………………………………………………………………………………….………………………………………… Joseph Kaz Le Comte Barigoule ( Prince’s valet)……………………………………………………….………………………………Aurelio Dominguez

Stage Director: Corinne Hayes, Helen Aberger Stage designer: Ksenia Litvak Chreographer: Runqiao Du Lighting Designer: Marianne Meadows General and Artistic Director, Producer: Dr. Katerina Souvorova

About

Pauline Viardot (18 July 1821 – 18 May 1910) was a leading nineteenth-century French mezzo-, pedagogue, and composer of Spanish descent. She was 13 years younger than her beautiful sister, diva , but her father made Pauline his favorite and trained her on the piano and also gave her singing lessons. As a small girl, she travelled with her family to London, New York (where her father, mother, brother and sister gave the first performance of Mozart's in the United States, in the presence of the librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte). After her father's death in 1832, her mother forced her to focus her attention on her voice and away from the piano. She had wanted to become a professional concert pianist. She had taken piano lessons with the young and counterpoint and harmony classes with (the teacher of Liszt and , and friend of ). It was with the greatest regret that she abandoned her strong vocation for the piano, which she did only because she did not dare to disobey her mother's wishes. At the age of 17, she met and was courted by , who asked for Pauline's hand in marriage. Pauline’s friend (who later based the heroine of her 1843 novel Consuelo on her) discouraged her from accepting de Musset's proposal, directing her instead to . Viardot, the director of the Théâtre Italien and twenty-one years her senior, who was devoted to her and became the manager of her career. After her sister Malibran's death, aged 28, Pauline became a professional singer, with a vocal range from C3 to F6. In 1837, she made her opera debut as Desdemona in Rossini's in London, with an exquisite technique combined with an astonishing degree of passion. Viardot's performances inspired composers such as Frédéric Chopin, Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns (who dedicated Samson and Delilah to her), and , for whom she created Fidès in Le prophète. She spent many happy hours with Sand and her lover Frédéric Chopin. She arranged Chopin’s mazurkas to be performed as songs as well as instrumental works by , and . She was on very friendly terms with Clara Schumann. She was the mezzo-soprano in the Tuba mirum movement of Mozart's at Chopin's funeral at Église de la Madeleine in Paris on October 30, 1849. Pauline Viardot sang the title role of Gluck's opera Orphée et Eurydice at Théâtre Lyrique in Paris in November 1859, directed by Hector Berlioz, and she sang this role over 150 times. From the mid-1840s, until her retirement, she was renowned for her appearances in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, an opera with which her family had long been associated. In 1855, she had purchased Mozart's original manuscript of the opera in London. She preserved it in a shrine in her Paris home. In 1889 she announced she would donate it to the Paris Conservatoire, and this occurred in 1892. In 1863, Pauline Viardot retired from the stage. She and her family left France due to her husband's public opposition to Emperor Napoleon III and settled in Baden-Baden, Germany. After the fall of Napoleon III later in 1870, they returned to France, where she taught at the Paris Conservatory and, until her husband's death in 1883, presided over a music salon in the Boulevard Saint- Germain. In 1910, Pauline Viardot died at age eighty-eight. Her body is interred in the , Paris, France. Story of Cendrillon Pauline Viardot began composing when she was young. Franz Liszt declared that, with Pauline Viardot, the world had finally found a woman composer of genius. Cendrillon is a chamber operetta with dialogue in three acts, based on . The work, for a cast of seven with piano , premiered in Viardot's Paris salon on 23 April 1904, when she was 83, and was published later that year. Historians are unsure of when the opera was actually composed, although it is thought to be after the death of Viardot's friend in 1883 as he did not write the . It has been described as "a retelling of the Cinderella story with Gallic wit, Italianate , and a quirkiness all her (Viardot's) own." The plot remains relatively faithful to Perrault's original , but takes a much more lighthearted approach than the other operatic adaptations by Massenet and Rossini. Act I. Marie (Cendrillon) is the servant in the house of her father, who is a low noble in an alternative reality of France where royalty still existed in 1904. The opera begins with Marie singing a song about a prince wanting to be married but unable to find a suitable wife, only wanting a princess. A beggar calls at the house asking for food and money, and ironically while Marie is off asking her sisters for money, reveals himself to be none other than the Prince, looking for a wife among common folk. Marie returns without anything from her family, but offers the beggar the few coins she has before Armelinde and Maguelonne enter the living room to shoo away the beggar. Marie responds by asking who would clean the house and take care of the family if she was to leave stating she should be at least able to sing her song, which she begins to sing again before being interrupted by another knock at the door, by the Prince again who is this time disguised as his Valet, Barigoule, with an invitation to a ball that evening. The sisters accept and go off to prepare themselves Marie thinks about the Valet who she describes as having a "charm so distinct" while Baron Pictordu wakes up. Marie attempts to greet him as "papa" while he simply rebuffs her by calling her "child." The sisters call Marie away while Baron comments that he isn't feeling well, explaining that he saw a van driving around that reminded him of the time before he was a baron, while he worked as a greengrocer also noting a jail sentence 20 years ago, a past love name Gothon, and "vive la France!" The sisters return after Baron's aria, explaining the invitation to the ball and encouraging their father to get ready. Maguelonne teases Marie about not being able to attend the ball to which she responds that all she wants is to be loved by her family. After the Baron, Maguelonne and Armalinde leave, Marie begins singing her song again, noting how much she wanted to see the Valet again, calling the attention of her fairy godmother, La Fee, who arrives to send Marie to the ball. Staying relatively faithful to the original fairy-tale la Fee turns a pumpkin into a carriage, mice into footmen and a coachman. Marie's godmother reminds her to be back by midnight or the spell would break, while giving her slippers and a magic veil that will turn her rags into a beautiful gown. La Fee sends her goddaughter on her way, and then heads to the ball herself. Act II. Back at the palace, the Prince and Barigoule have switched rolls again for the evening - and Barigoule sings about how happy he is get to be the Prince. The Pictordu family (minus Marie) then arrives and introduces themselves to Barigoule throughout a series of entrees. As the Barigoule attempts to whisk off Maguelonne and Armalinde off to see "his" treasures, the Prince notices another woman needing to be formally introduced. The crowd is taken aback by her beauty before the Prince realizes it is the woman he fell in love with as a beggar and Marie recognizing the Prince as the charming man singing a semi- duet over the crowd. After the Prince and crowd regain their composure, Barigoule proposes an entertainmen: La Fee responds by singing a song, then two sisters follow her example. After their performance, Barigoule asks the guests to choose a dance, to which the guests ask for a minuet. After the dance, everybody leaves for the buffet, while Marie and the Prince have a moment alone. At the end of the duet, the two share a kiss before Marie realizes that midnight has come and leaves abruptly leaving behind a slipper, while the guests sing a rousing (and implicitly drunken) song. Act III. Baron Pictordu awakens in his own house commenting that the Prince, (rather who he thought was the prince), had a remarkable resemblance to someone he once knew. Barigoule arrives thinking the same thing, and revealing that he actually isn't the Prince and that he used to work with Pictordu when he was a greengrocer. They reminisce on their past line of work. Barigoule brings word that the Prince is looking for the lady at the ball who left her slipper, so that he might marry her. The sisters, upon hearing this revel in their. Barigoule hears the Prince's royal march in the distance and the Prince with his footman arrive. The Prince, now actually as himself, thanks the ladies for responding to his appeal, and directs Barigoule to begin trying the slipper on each one. The slipper fits neither of the sisters, to which the Prince decides that the mysterious lady wasn't from this home and starts to leave but not before Barigoule remembering that there were three ladies from the house of Pictordu. The Prince questions Amalinde and Maguelonne about this and it is revealed that the third sister is in the kitchen. The Prince orders Barigoule to find the other sister and try the slipper on her. Marie is brought into the room, and of course, the slipper is a perfect fit. The Prince immediately asks Marie to marry him, and her family asks her to forgive them for how they treated her. La Fee returns to give her well wishes to the new couple, bidding them to be happy while the crowd sings about how delirious joyful and bubbling over in love the new couple is. Marie and the Prince kiss, about to live happily .... Bel Cantanti Opera Director

Dr. Katerina Souvorova is an accomplished pianist as well as a distinguished professional opera and vocal coach. She earned her D.M.A., M.M., and Artist Diploma degrees with highest honors in piano performance from the Conservatory of Belarus. Following her studies, she taught piano at the Conservatory of Belarus. She also was a principal coach for the State Academy of the Bolshoi Opera of Belarus in Minsk for more than ten years, where she worked with internationally known conductors, producers and singers. She has lived in the United States since 1996 and was one of the founders of a community opera company, CPCC Opera Theater in Charlotte, NC, where she served as Music Director. As a soloist and collaborative artist, she has made numerous recordings of repertoire that spans a wide range of composers and nationalistic styles Dr. Souvorova joined the faculty at George Mason University in 2001, the faculty of Shenandoah Conservatory in 2003, then the facuty of the Catholic University of America, where she worked as an opera coach till 2014, teaching singers in many aspects of operatic style and interpretation and teaching courses in Italian and Russian diction for more than ten years. Dr. Souvorova has worked with the Baltimore Opera as a principal accompanist on past productions of Puccini’s and Fanciulla del West, Verdi’s , Strauss’ Salome, and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Dr. Souvorova is Founder, General and Artistic Director of Bel Cantanti Opera. She started the company in 2003, working with a handful of young singers on Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Bel Cantanti’s first fully staged opera production. Through her love for the music and art of opera, and her desire to support young operatic talent, Dr. Souvorova continues to develop the company and lead it from one success to another. Dr. Souvorova’s work was highly acclaimed by Joe McClellan, the late classical music critic emeritus of The Washington Post who said: “...Katerina Souvorova [is] a pianist of international stature and vocal coach of extraordinary talent…We can credit her with a high level of skill, both in music and in human relations, and an even higher level of determination. Perhaps that is why, observing Souvorova in action, I keep being reminded of my first close operatic acquaintance, Sarah Caldwell.”

Our Singers Melissa Jean Chávez (Marie, called Cinderella) has been acclaimed by the Washington Post for her “voluptuous voice” and “cooly exemplary production”. She sings regularly in the DC area, and has performed leading roles with several companies, including Riverbend Opera, Loudoun Lyric Opera, The Singers Theatre of Washington, Repertory Opera Theatre of Washington D.C., and Victorian Lyric Opera. Ms. Chávez was a young artist at the Castleton Festival, under the direction of Lorin Maazel, where she performed roles and covers in A Little Night Music, Otello, Romeo et Juliette, and Britten's Les Illuminations. She is a two-time winner of the Bach-Handel Competition, has placed in numerous NATS competitions, and received multiple grants including the Marion Park Lewis Foundation grant. www.melissajeanchavez.com Joseph Kaz (Prince Charming) is a composer and based in the Washington, DC area. Recent performances have included singing Monostatos in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with Opera AACC, the Professor in Rodger's and Hammerstein's South Pacific with Annapolis Opera, Fenton in Verdi’s with the Shakespeare Opera Theatre, Vogelsang in Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor, at the Catholic University of America, and ensemble appearances with Annapolis Opera, Bel Cantanti Opera, and Maryland Lyric Opera. An advocate for new opera, Joseph created the roles of the Dean and Vicar in Patrick Valentino’s Monuments Men, and was in the ensemble for the world premiere of A Wolf By the Ears by Dana Wilson. Upcoming performances include singing Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Susquehanna. A graduate of Ithaca College and the Catholic University of America, Joseph has studied with renowned singers and teachers including Patrice Pastore, Marc Webster, Jeffrey Springer, and currently Fabiana Bravo. Joseph has coached with Blaise Bryski, Seyoung Jeong, Henriette Lund, Lisa Bloy and James Harp. Joanna Jones (La Fee) is a soprano and pianist freelancer working in the DC Metropolitan area. She recently graduated with Dean’s List academic honors from The University of Maryland with Bachelors Degrees in both Piano and Vocal Performance. Joanna's solo performances have brought her to many venues including the DC Arts Club, the Millennium Stage, and the Clarice Kay Theatre. Her ensemble credits include performances at the White House, the Kennedy Center, the Meyerhoff and Strathmore Halls, and internationally in parts of South Korea and Sweden. Since graduating, she has created a thriving private piano and voice studio. Joanna can also be found as a soloist at the National Presbyterian Church as well as their staff pianist and youth choir director. Emerging lyric from Malaysia Evelyn Tsen (Maguelonne, another daughter of Pictordu) has been praised for her “velvety, warm, and silvery voice” during her recent appearance at OperaWorks in Los Angeles. Highlights from 2015 include performing and speaking in the Rialto Women's Luncheon: Women and Confidence; debuting in the chorus with Odyssey Opera; singing Sophie with Boston Opera Collaborative's in which she was applauded for her “pure, flexible voice” (Boston Intelligencer). Ms. Tsen received her Graduate Performance Diploma at The Boston Conservatory where she performed as Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia, Papagena in and Grasshopper in The Cunning Little Vixen. According to The Boston Examiner, her portrayal of Papagena was "sung coquettishly...and charmed all". Ms. Tsen has been an avid recitalist in the Boston and Minneapolis area. She has collaborated and presented recitals with Jean Anderson Collier and Michael Strauss. Ms. Tsen has sung with prestigious opera programs such as The Advanced Artist Operaworks Program and The International Performing Arts Institute in Germany. In addition to performing, Ms. Tsen is passionate about teaching. She believes that music can be a means of expression for every individual. She strives to share the power of music through both her teaching and performances. Amanda Leigh Staub (Armelinde, another daughter of Pictordu )is very excited to join the cast of Cendrillon of the Bel Cantanti Opera. Amanda is joining Maryland Opera Studio in the Fall of 2017. At the University of Maryland. She appeared in the chorus of the MarylandOpera Chorus’ production of . Amanda has sung the roles of Belinda (Dido and Aeneas) and Mme. Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor) with OperaTerps, a student run opera company of which she is a founding member and associate artistic director. She enjoys teaching private voice lessons for the Jim Henson Academy for the Visual and Performing at Northwestern High School. Amanda is the proud student of Gran Wilson and Delores Ziegler. Eric Gramatges, (Le Baron de Pictordu, Maria’s father) has performed the roles of Hermann/Schlemil (Les Contes d'Hoffmann), The Blind Violinist (Mozart and Salieri), Mr. Gobineau (The Medium), Prince Leopold Maria (Die Csárdásfürstin), Herald (Cendrillon), Don José (Carmen), Babylas (Monsieur Choufleuri restera chez lui le...), Roméo (Roméo et Juliette), Gherardo (Gianni Schicchi), Gastone (La Traviata) with Bel Cantanti Opera; Normanno (Lucia di Lammermoor), Gastone (La Traviata) with Opera International; Victorin (Die Tode Stadt) with The Summer Opera Theater Company; and Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) with the Aria Club of Washington. He has also performed with the In Series in their Viva Zarzuela programs and has been a guest soloist for several regional choral ensembles. At the San Carlos Institute in Key West, Eric performed in the world première of "Jose Marti: A Musical Tribute." Eric is a of a graduate of The Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (B.M. Vocal Performance) and The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America (M.M. Vocal Pedagogy and D.M.A. Vocal Performance). At CUA, he has performed the roles of Uberto (La Serva Padrona), Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Count Capulet (Roméo et Juliette), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Lucano (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Rudolfo (La Bohème), The Stage Manager (Our Town by ), Nemorino (L’Elisir D’Amore), Candide (Candide), Nireno (Giulio Cesare), Ferrando (Così Fan Tutte), and Mr. Marshal (Regina). He also has been a National Officers’ Club Scholarship Winner of the Ethel and Carl C. Galbraith Scholarship from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Eric is on faculty at The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music of The Catholic University of America. Aurelio Dominguez ( Le Comte Barigoule), started his musical career at a young age playing viola, though singing, acting, and voice-overs cover most of his performing career. He has appeared with the Washington National Opera as the Nantucket Sailor in Jake Heggie’s Moby Dick and as Inmate #1 in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. His operatic appearances also include Cavaradossi (), Il Duca (), Rodolfo (La Bohème), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Roméo (Roméo et Juliette), Tonio (La fille du régiment), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Camille (), Nemorino (L'elisir d'amore), Orphée/Pluto (Orphée aux Enfers), the title role in Oberon (Weber), Marco (The Gondoliers), and Fairfax (The Yeoman of the Guard). He has appeared regionally with Virginia Opera, Opera Delaware, Ashlawn Opera, Miami Lyric Opera, and Sylvan Chorale among others. Locally, he has appeared with the InSeries, Bel Cantanti Opera, and The Aria of Washington DC. He has also participated in the Associazione Prato Lirica’s Concert Series in Prato, , and in Opera Delaware’s Concert Series and Outreach Concert Programs. His non-operatic repertoire includes Haydn’s The Creation, Handel’s Messiah, Bach's Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio, Mozart's Requiem, "The Great” C minor Mass, Coronation Mass, Solemn Vespers, and Orff's Carmina Burana. Aurelio has performed and recorded in Rome, Italy, and in Washington, DC with the choir of The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. He has also performed as a guest soloist in EWTN live broadcast events from the National Shrine. Mr. Dominguez has appeared in Netflix' "House of Cards", "National Treasure II", and in "Shooting the Prodigal" as Peter. Aurelio's main voice-over work is for the ' Audio Books for the Blind and Physically Impaired Project.